Order of Drones
We are stuck in this world together. For good or bad, for whatever reason God may have had, it is the will of the Divine that we mortal creatures dwell together in community and experience the repercussions of each other's actions. And dwelling together as individuals in community, both the best (and worst) is brought to bear in humanity. This is exemplified in the Order of Drones, who represent that Divine will for a community of souls. Aspect of God: Unifying-Force AKA: The Gathering, Gatherers, the Bureaucratic Order, the Socialites, the Middle-Class. Gatherer Degrees Facts: -The Order of Drones are an Order of Adepts mind-locked together. Able to share thoughts, sensations and even abilities, the Drones are a powerful Order. They are also easily one of the largest Orders present, dwarfing most other Orders and often drowning their enemies under sheer weight of numbers. -The Drones can share knowledge, memories, skills and specific powers at will, although only one person can use one 'specific power' at a time. The Drones should not be thought of as a collection of individuals but instead as a collective of linked minds who can operate together even over vast distances with ease. -Members of the Gathering belong to a single unit, known as a Clique, usually those who they were transformed into Adepts with. They can hear each other's thoughts in the back of their minds, a chorus of emotions and voices like a crowd inside one's skull. -Members of the Gathering absolutely love it, after being part of such a hive mind for years they have even grown emotionally dependent upon it. Drones who are separated from their Order and somehow disconnected from the mind-link will actually go into shock! -Members of the Order of Drones look out for each other. There is very little bickering and prejudice between members, and even the most reclusive of them is still a social animal. -Because of their ability to think and strategize with the speed of thought, Drones are always organized and united in their purpose. -It is possible to 'disconnect' one or more members of a Gathering temporarily, ordinarily through supernatural means. But the minute they are free, they will automatically reconnect with the Gathering's gestalt mind. -Drones can operate alongside other Adepts but they clearly prefer to work alone with others of their own kind. Working with people not 'jacked in' to the Order's collective mind often proves hard for Drones who are used to simply thinking their plans and actions with others instantly. -Unfortunately, in return for all these powers of unity, the Gathering suffers from a major weakness - lack of originality and creativity. -People sometimes get freaked out working alongside a Clique, the silent eeriness of a group of people who work in unison without a single word spoken between them is truly unnerving. -Drones are so jacked into the Gathering, they often speak in terms of "we" instead of "me" or "I." -When a single member of the Gathering is wounded, especially if the damage is serious, there's really nothing the other Drones won't do to save them. The idea of sacrificing a member is simply too abhorrent to them, only if the entire collective was threatened would they consider such an act. -Both men and women are found aplenty within the Order, although most observers notice that there seem to be slightly more girls than boys within the ranks of the Gathering. -The members of the Order, even if they were culturally diverse before, will soon pan out as the personalities of each are slowly disseminated through the hive mind of the group. The result is that soon, very soon, all members of a Clique will dress alike, act the same, behave the same, even vote the same way. -The Order of Anarchs and the Drones are like water and oil. Anarchs at best consider a Gathering to be deluded fools for wanting to throw away their liberty, and at worst they see the entire Order as an attack on freedom in general. -There are no Factions or Sects within the Order of Drones. The entire point and purpose to the Order is community and uniformity. This pathos effectively nullifies at trends within the Order which may form sub-groups within the Gathering. All Drones are alike, aside from powers granted by the Zeitgeist, as if they'd rolled off an assembly line in a manufacturing plant somewhere. Cliques: The Clique is the basic unit of the Order of Drones. Most Drones are brought into the Order in groups, and these groups of Drones who knew each other from before their induction share especially tight bonds of friendship and commonality. The Order accepts these Cliques as the closest thing it has to Factions. The Cliques, however, are not Factions or Sects because they don't represent a deviation of the progression of their Degrees, and the Cliques do not seek a special, alternate goal apart from the mainstream of the Order. What Cliques actually do for the Drone Order is make for a solid base of operations. Cliques tend to be regionally-based and can be relied upon as base of operations for the wider activity of the Order. To outsiders, a Clique is a microcosm of the mystery (and horror) that is the Order of Drones. Cliques have no leadership of which to speak since its members can hear each other's thoughts. If a decision needs to be made, it is made near-instantly as the various members of the Clique effectively take a psychic vote on the subject. This also means that it is impossible to disorient a Clique or cut off its leadership. Each Drone within the Clique is both a member of the leadership as well as a follower. The Mind-Link: Each Drone shares a mental-link with every other Drone out there. This link exists regardless of any individual differences, such as race, gender, religion, etc. This Link is everything to a Drone and m The mind-link is not uniform throughout existence, and, in fact, appears to be something generated by the Order itself. A single Drone can generate a mind-link 'field' for some distance, but the distance of that mind-link increases exponentially the more you add more Drones to it. Also, the strength of the link itself increases according to how many Drones effectively generate it. Also, as a whole, the Order of Drones has been known to generate such a strong mind-link that they can even cross dimensional barriers and commune with Drones from other Realms! Life within the Hive: The collective hive-mind of the Order of Drones is a truly fascinating wonder to behold. Within this hive-mind, untold numbers of individuals are constantly experiencing and learning new things, and then immediately sharing that with all the other Drones. Information is processed and disseminated, objectives and dangers are clarified, and protocols of action are drawn up via immediate snape election. Cliques share information and resources while individuals continue to take in the new information constantly being absorbed by the countless eyes and ears connected to the Order. Often times, Drones will simply sit or stand there, listening to a chorus of minds within their own. A background noise that others cannot hear. White-Picket Fences: The Drone is the perfect family man, the perfect consumer, the perfect citizen, and the perfect follower. They obey traffic laws and attend all the social functions in town. They vote, they watch TV, they attend sports, and they like to please others. The Drone will get married, have kids, and work hard in their career. They will do everything they can to fulfill the image of them expected by others. The Bureaucracy: The Order of Drones is also known as the Bureaucratic Order and for good reason. The silent, conformist nature of the Drones makes them perfect for working in the labyrinthine networks of bureaucracy. The modern bureaucratic systems which have developed/infected many modern nations has proven to be a stronghold for the Drone Order. The Order of Drones thus has access to government resources, including everything the government knows about its citizens (which is damn near everything in the information age). The Order can also weaponize this social situation, using various forms of spreadsheet warfare against its enemies like tax audits or federal investigations. Social-Networks: The age of the internet has seen a surge in the numbers and power of the Order of Drones. As if the Drones weren't already large and powerful enough, the Bureaucratic Order has embraced whole-heartily the burgeoning field of social-networks and online community sites. Major social-networks are not only sources of recruitment for the Drones, they are also owned or massed largely by Drones. You can expect the largest and most successful sites online to have a huge chunk of their followers coming from the Drone Order. If you are an enemy of the Drones, and you have an online presence, you can expect them to be watching your every post (or getting you banned and erased from the cyber world as much as possible). Peer Pressure: The collective mind-link generated by the Order of Drones can even affect the minds of those outside the Order. This 'peer pressure' is actually the psychic might of the Drone Order bearing down on outsiders to temporarily subvert their willpower and subsume their individuality. When a person or persons is in communication with the Drones, even if only through a single Drone, the collective network of the Drones can concentrate itself on those individuals. By targeting a person in such a manner, the Order can effectively force a mind-link unto the person, temporarily connecting them to the Gathering and using them as a pawn. The weight of so many minds crashing down on an individual should not be underestimated. Even Adepts renowned for their psychological hardiness, such as the Kings and Mithraists, have had their willpower crushed by the attentions paid to them by the Drone Order. In extreme cases, this has even resulted in neurological damage. If a person is successfully brought into the Order in such a manner, their entire mind will be open to the collective Gathering. This means that any secrets they hold will be laid bare for all Drones to see. Needless to say, this has been a favorite tool of interrogation by the Drones. Of course, people with exceptionally strong willpower and self-identity can resist. And one Order, in particular, is known to be completely immune to this ability of the Drones - the Order of Anarchs. No Anarch has ever been forcefully used by the hive mind of the Drone Order, their very nature rejects any such power. Followers of the Ruling Orders: Drones are conditioned to be perfect followers, and the Order as a whole yearns to conform to social expectations. This often translates into the Drones being obedient laborers and soldiers for the Ruling Orders who are always ready to offer leadership when needed (which it always is, if you ask one of them). The Ruling Orders recognize the value inherent in the Order of Drones and will usually favor them with their patronage and influence. However, it would be foolish for a King or Priest to assume that any local Drones are simply going to fall in under their authority. If a member of the Ruling Orders is socially disgraced, in whatever manner, then the Drones will inevitably turn upon them. The Ruling Orders have learned to value the Drones, but they have also learned to be wary of them as well. Zeitgeist: The Zeitgeist or 'spirit of the age' is supposed to be the overall feeling or mood of a specific time period. However, since then people have realized just how substantial and real a zeitgeist really is. And Adepts, in particular, have known for a long time that there actually exists a Memetic-being known as the Zeitgeist. The Zeitgeist is both the flagship of the Order of Drones and its most precious creation. The Zeitgeist is the manifestation of the collective hive-mind that is the Gathering itself, and while it does not lord its authority over the Order, it does act as a leader of sorts in that it can grant special abilities. The Order of Drones cannot gain new abilitie apart from their standard Degrees unless they receive them from the Zeitgeist. Alliances: -Order of Heralds = Like the Drones, the Heralds exist as socially-based creatures who are also in communion with Memetic-beings. -Order of Magdalenes = The Magdalenes put great emphasis on social harmony and group cohesion. This often means that Magdalenes are one of the few outsiders to the Gathering that Drones can stand to be with for great lengths of time. -Ruling Orders = All of the Ruling Ordes look upon the Drones as obedient students, but they have also learned to be wary of the Drones if their approval ratings are low. References: -http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Hive_Mind -http://www.thesororitylife.com/ -http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105327/ -Cults on Wikipedia -https://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Borg -https://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Adeptus_Administratum -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_mind_(science_fiction) Category:Bureaucracy